Search - Gun Club :: Death Party

First CD Issue Of A Scorching EP

cameron-vale | Seattle, WA | 11/01/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Presented for the first time ever on CD, the DEATH PARTY EP has long been the holy grail for fans of The Gun Club. Although a poorly recorded semi-bootleg live album was issued years ago deceivingly sporting the same title, this Sympathy For The Record Industry release is (finally!) the real thing.



Quickly recorded and released following MIAMI, The Gun Club's second album, the five songs on DEATH PARTY are remarkably consistent with that underrated work, despite the fact that Jeffrey Lee Pierce utilized a completely different and short-lived band lineup for the EP. All the tracks here are powerful, grim tales of despair, drug addiction, deviant sex, and death. Fans seem to agree that the band this time around consisted of strictly routine musicians but if that's truly the case than the superb songwriting balances everything out. "The Lie" and "The House On Highland Ave" are two of Pierce's most searing rockers, and the title track is white-hot, scruffy and hypnotically repetitious.



The CD is augmented by seven live tracks taken from France's RADIO GENEVA program, including versions of three DEATH PARTY songs (most notably "Death Party" itself) and a totally raucous "Fire of Love". The band was always plagued by sloppy live performances and the show on hand is no different, but Pierce's bizarre on-stage comments and the sheer quality of the songs compensates.



Here is the full tracklisting for the 2004 CD reissue of the DEATH PARTY EP:



1. The House On Highland Ave

2. The Lie

3. The Light of the World

4. Death Party

5. Come Back Jim

6. Strange Fruit (live)

7. Fire Of Love (live)

8. The House On Highland Ave (live)

9. Death Party (live)

10. Heebie Jeebies (live)

11. The Lie (live)

12. Run Through The Jungle (live)"

Finally!

ChrisWN | Santa Cruz, CA | 11/01/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"2004 has seen some great re- & newly issued 80's classics. I am ecstatic to finally get this EP on CD, in fact I was just considering recording my LP & transferring it over to digital last week, when I stumbled across it in the store, complete with the original cover & a live performance on Swiss radio (complete with the announcer's introductions) as a bonus.



This always was my favorite Gun Club record, even though it only had 5 tracks. First the 2 best Gun Club tracks (Death Party & Come Back Jim) are on it. Secondly, no one else I knew who also had Gun Club records owned this & so I was always able to play it for them & get flattered by the requests for a taped copy. Third, it has my favorite cover of all Gun Club LPs (I was a big fan of German Expressionism & Die Blaue Reiter school in the 80s & the cover looked as if it would fit right in). The live performance is of much better quality than those found elsewhere (especially the one that I think is entitled "birth life death" or something like it). The band does seem a bit off a few times, but the 10 minute extended version of Death Party from this session rivals the best performances of The Doors, Birthday Party or X."